How can I improve a weaker signal in my house?

Just signed up with Comcast Internet and they provided an Aris Cable Modem and a Netgear WNR100 Router.

Installer went into the wall with a direct connection at one end of our home, and indicated a dedicated connection was best Vs hooking up to any jack in the house. I had wanted to put it in the middle of the house so the signal would have been more balanced,, but he indicated his set up would be fine.

I've seen the Xfinity you tube self installation kit video where you can install it on any jack using a splitter. Will the speed or signal be noticeably worse with this type of set up?

Well, at that end end of the house we get excellent reception "Full bars". However, at the other end of the house we are down to 4 bars, and outside down to 2/3 bars.

Re: How can I improve a weaker signal in my house?

A couple of things:

The tech was probably right that your strongest signal was from where the cable comes directly into the residence...however...that does not mean that you might not have gotten sufficient signal in the middle of the house. You could always try moving the modem and see if the results are good or not. (Did the tech actually take a reading of the signal strength from that location?)

It does not sound like your in-home signal strength from the router should be a problem...outside is always tricky, because there is a lot of potential interference having the router signal going through walls/etc.

You also could simply run some cat 5e and re-locate the router to a more central location...not recommending that, but just a thought.

Everytime you introduce a splitter, you lose some signal strength. The question is whether you retain sufficient signal for a good connection.

You can check your modem's signal strength by entering http://192.168.100.1, post them here, and folks can let you know how it looks.

Re: How can I improve a weaker signal in my house?

[ Edited ]

FWIW, there is a known issue lately with accessing the user interfaces of some Arris modems that was recently acknowledged by a Comcast engineer here in the forums. They are supposedly working together with Arris on it for a fix.

Re: How can I improve a weaker signal in my house?

Thanks EG, I missed that! By the way, is there any better likelyhood that he might get the web page if he connects directly to the modem? I know it shouldn't be an issue as I can access mine through the router.

Marc, of course you still can always try re-connecting your modem and router at the more central location that you desire and see if everything is running well. Hopefully Comcast and Arris will get the interface issue straightened out, as knowing what your signal strengths are is a good thing.

Re: How can I improve a weaker signal in my house?

You need to seperate the two issues. HSI signal strenght at the cable modem has nothing whatsoever to do with the wireless signal strenght you see on your wireless devices. Wireless signal is purely between the wireless router and your devices, nothing else.

So place the wireless router wherever you get the best signal. Then run an ethernet cable from the router to where ever the cable modem is. If you can't co-locate the modem with the router, either because there is no cable outlet handy in that location or the cable outlet is not providing a good enough signal to the modem, then you have to find some way to overcome that. The simplest solution is to ditch the WNR1000 which is by no means a great router. Step up to a Netgear WNDR4000 or better, a Linksys EA3500 or better, or something similar. Then you can probably keep the modem where it is and put the router next to it and still get a good signal over most of the house. Another solution is to use MoCA or powerline ethernet adapters to use existing wiring. Thse solutions are not anywhere near as good a pure ethernet connection, but they can be mroe than acceptable is some situations.

Outside is always problematic (exterior walls and foundations tend to be more of a problem than interior walls), the best solution is to run a wireless range extender (made by the SAME manfacturer as your wireless router!) to some point near where the signal drops off. Get it up high and with line of sight through a window if at all possible for the best coverage.

Again, powerline adapters can be very helpful here if you place the extender or WAP outside and just connect it directly to the wireless router over the house's power wiring. Due to some changes around my house, my outside wireless signal has become spotty and degraded. We spend a lot of time out back around the pool in the summer, and use the wireless signal all the time. To solve that, I'm going to place a WAP (an Airport Express) on a powerline adapter out on the back deck. The adapter will connect to my Time Capsule wireless router which sits in my basement across the room from the SB6120 cable modem. The only hold up is I haven't decided on an enclosure yet (or even if I need one). I hope to get to it this weekend, but we'll see.